"Da Situ, the dust has settled on the dispatch of Yanguan Qingliu, and the next step is to implement the tax reform, and replace the land endowment, forced labor, and miscellaneous taxes with silver money."

"At the same time, the cabinet department also has an idea, under the household department, to open a Daming money village owned by the imperial court, which is used to mint copper coins, silver taels and issue paper money, so as to avoid a shortage of currency among the people after the promulgation of a whip law."

"In addition, there are high profits from the resumption of the minting rights of the people, and at the same time, the issuance of paper money can also greatly promote the circulation of commerce, and the Cabinet estimates that these two measures alone will bring at least millions of taels of revenue to the imperial court a year."

"Tax reform and the opening of money banks can be said to be beneficial and harmless, and it is urgent!"

Shen Yichen had already discussed the tax reform with Nianfu, and what he wanted to achieve this time was to open a bank.

In fact, it is not uncommon for money to be placed in ancient times, as early as the Song Dynasty, there was a prototype of money bank, and the world's earliest banknote "Jiaozi" was also issued.

However, due to the limitations of the times, the ending of "Jiaozi" was the same as the "treasure banknote", and the imperial court turned it into a pure tool for collecting money, and it was reduced to a piece of waste paper if it was overdiscriminately issued, and finally lost its circulation.

In addition to the issuance of banknotes, Shen Yichen opened Daming Money Bank and wanted to recover the official coinage right. You must know that private copper coins were rampant in the Ming Dynasty, and the mints of many local forces have developed to the point where they can compete with the imperial court.

Just like the original Ye Zongliu southeast miners' riot, many of the official mines they secretly dug were actually to sell the ore to private mints, and the imperial court planned to ban it, and a great uprising broke out that swept the entire southeast.

This situation continued until the eighth year of Jiajing, when the imperial court finally publicly ordered a ban on the private minting and sale of copper coins, which cut off the wealth of the money bank.

However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the control ability of the imperial court center had actually declined very much, and not long after the ban was issued, local private money banks "made private agreements, and each closed the money market, so that the prices soared." ”

There is no way, the scarcity of metal currency makes Emperor Jiajing can only relax the ban and choose to continue to turn a blind eye, otherwise it will not be long before prices soar and turmoil will break out in various state capitals.

The coinage power is not only a demonstration of the control of the central court of the imperial court, but also has a high profit that can be called a million profits. In particular, the precious metal of gold and silver, there is no detailed historical data in the Ming Dynasty to pass down, but the Qing Dynasty recorded the minting of money and interest silver, which became the main source of financial revenue in the middle and late periods, as high as tens of millions of taels per year.

This is only to calculate the real minting profits, if the Ming money is appropriate to over-issue currency, it is equivalent to making money out of thin air. An increase in annual income of several million taels is an extremely conservative underestimate, and it is not a dream to maintain an appropriate inflation within a reasonable range, and tens of millions of taels is not a dream.

Of course, this reasonable range is extremely difficult to control, which is why Shen Yichen will say that the imperial court will take the shares, not the direct establishment of the household department. It is because he does not believe that the current group of household officials in the Ming Dynasty not only refers to their character, but also their thinking and ability to do things.

The best way is to lead the creation by yourself, in the name of the official court, and wait for the development of productive forces, and the training of a group of officials who have broken away from traditional Confucian thinking into the court, and then transfer it to the official court.

And even the first president of Daming Qianzhuang, Shen Yichen, has already thought of a candidate, he is Xu Fengyuan, who was once in charge of smuggling business!

Hearing that Shen Yichen wanted to open a Daming bank, Nianfu's expression was a little cautious, the recovery of the coinage right would definitely trigger a counterattack by the illegal bank, and there was an uprising of Fujian miners in the orthodox dynasty, and Shen Yichen personally put down the rebellion.

As for the issuance of banknotes, it is a sinkhole, the "Daming treasure banknote" in the Hongwu period, and now a considerable part of it is circulating in the market, which is used to offset the military expenses of officials and soldiers.

Relying on Shen Yichen to take charge of the court in the past few years, he has continuously reduced the distribution ratio of "Daming treasure banknotes", which has reduced the living pressure of many low-level officials and soldiers, otherwise this piece of waste paper is too hard to even wipe his buttocks!

"Shen Gongbao, tax reform can be carried out, but the establishment of Daming Qianzhuang is afraid that it will suffer a lot of resistance and be difficult to achieve. Besides, the great uncle of the Ministry of Rites has not completely given up on impeaching you, and will he give people a handle if he makes such a big move? ”

Just experienced such a large-scale impeachment, Shen Yichen immediately promoted reform and change the law, and he was really worried about him in addition to his admiration, and some things could not be achieved quickly.

"It's okay, it's just my idea, it's not going to happen in a day. In addition, Xu Fengyuan, the prefect of Fuzhou, has led the opening of the sea in recent years, and is very proficient in commercial trade. ”

"As for the issuance of banknotes, we have to figure it out slowly, and we have to wait until Daming Money Village has a firm foothold to win the trust of the people before it can be progressed."

Of course, Shen Yichen understands the worries of being rich, and he doesn't plan to become fat in one bite, and the main purpose of opening Daming Money Village now is to mint coins. After all, the overseas trade led by Deng Maoqi and Ye Zongliu may be as high as tens of millions of taels of silver exchanged from Ryukyu, Korea, and Waguo in recent years.

How many numbers there are, Shen Yichen honestly hasn't paid attention to them for a long time, after all, money has exceeded a certain limit, and it has really become data on paper.

However, this money can be used by Xu Fengyuan as the reserve fund of the Daming bank, which can be used to fight a financial war with the private money bank in the stage of recovering the coinage right, so as to avoid the situation that the money banks colluded with each other to disrupt the market and used bad money to drive out good money during the Jiajing period in history.

Shen Yichen didn't know how much financial resources the Ming Dynasty folk money bank had now, but he was very sure of one thing, that is, the precious metals under his control, especially the stock of silver, probably had occupied half of the Ming Dynasty.

really starts a financial war, no one will be Xu Fengyuan's opponent!

"Since Shen Gong Bao Chengzhu is in his chest, this official doesn't have much to say, I just want to ask how to position the level of this Daming Money Village?"

In terms of execution, Nian Fu believes that there is no problem with Shen Yichen's ability, but after all, he is an old man who came over during the Yongle period, and he has experienced the process of Daming treasure banknotes becoming waste paper step by step.

The fiscal and taxation system of the Ming Dynasty was very special, and perhaps from the perspective of later generations, the household department could almost be equated with the modern Ministry of Finance, which undertook the functions of tax expenditure distribution and so on.

However, the Ming Dynasty was neither a decision-making department, nor a completely inverted executive department, and the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Industry alongside the Ministry of Household all had the nature of financial institutions and had the function of independent tax expenditure.

For example, the Ministry of Industry's Camp Division, Yu Heng Division, Metropolitan Water Division, and Tuntian Division can directly collect land taxes and spend funds for various water conservancy projects, and are completely independent and not subject to any jurisdiction of the Ministry of Households.

There is Guanglu Temple under the Ministry of Rites, and it can interfere in all the palace expenses of the royal family and the tax expenditures of the royal relatives, and this money is quite amazing in the feudal dynasty, and it is not lost to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry.

As for the financial management of the Ministry of War, it is even more bizarre, it has a department called Taifu Temple, which is nominally an institution in charge of the imperial court and horse administration. However, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it was threatened by the nomads in the north, so it attached great importance to horse politics, which led to the Taifu Temple having amazing financial resources.

In the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the Taifu Temple relied on the collection of horses, the arrangement of horse households, the inventory of pastures and other ways to obtain silver, the annual peak of nearly 800,000 taels. You must know that the financial revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty is converted to more than 20 million taels, and a subordinate yamen of the military department occupies one-twenty-fifth, which is enough to see how exaggerated it is.

The key to Nianfu's question is that if Daming Qianzhuang is positioned under the six ministries, then the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of War, which have financial jurisdiction, can order Daming Qianzhuang to become a "cash machine" in the end, and it will collapse if it can't go through the step of issuing banknotes.

Even if you can barely get there, the value of the banknote will inevitably become the next Daming treasure banknote.

If it is parallel to the six parts, then it is equivalent to breaking the six-part system that has been followed for thousands of years, and the "seventh part" has appeared. The establishment of a yamen at this level is not something that Shen Yichen can easily make decisions at all, even if he brings the entire cabinet, he can't do it.

Nianfu didn't want to hit Shen Yichen's ambition, he just wanted the other party to understand that some things could not be done with enthusiasm.

To be honest, Shen Yichen didn't know how to answer the question of Nian Fu for a while, not that he didn't have an answer in his heart, it was true that there was no perfect solution for the time being.

The Ming Dynasty's tax mess was a mess, and Shen Yichen had personally sorted it out, otherwise he would not have found a way to implement the "One Whip Law". It is precisely because I know that the positioning of Daming Qianzhuang must be equivalent to the level of the central bank in later generations, and cannot be located under the six ministries.

At the same time, Shen Yichen is also ambitious, and plans to collect all the tax expenditure powers of the household department, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, and other yamen into the hands of a yamen after the establishment of Daming Qianzhuang, and establish a real Ministry of Finance in Daming.

However, this will touch the interests of too many people, especially the high-ranking officials of the court, and the protests and obstructions caused by them may exceed those of Beijing officials.

After all, the dispatch of Beijing officials is only a nominal Qingzhang Tianmu, and Shen Yichen's hand and gentry are still hidden when they pay for food, at most, the government and the opposition speculate that Shen Yichen will do it on taxes.

But everyone has a fluke mentality, and the vast majority of scholars and doctors can't believe that Shen Yichen's real sword target is the entire gentry class, which has led to the lack of perfect interaction between the local state government and the high-level officials of the court.

In addition, under Shen Yichen's fame and fortune offensive, more than eighty percent of the people chose to jump against foreign factions, and finally let a mighty impeachment storm turn big things into small things and small things.

The implementation of Daming Money Village and the collection of finance is equivalent to seizing power with a clear card, and there will inevitably be a scene of fish dying and the net being broken. Coupled with the change in the division of the six-part system, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the royal family to support it, and Shen Yichen is really not sure of victory.

At this time, Shen Yichen showed a wry smile on his face: "Xie Da Situ is vigilant, I will think twice." ”

After receiving such a response, Nianfu knew that Shen Yichen had thought deeply in his mind and would not do anything impulsive.

So he arched his hand and said: "Shen Gong Bao is polite, you are a talented person who will plan and then move." The official did not stay long, and first went back to the yamen of the household department to convene his subordinates to discuss the steps and plans of the tax reform. ”

"Okay, then I'll send Da Situ."

"Shen Gong Bao is busy with government affairs, please stay."

Nianfu didn't let Shen Yichen send him off, there was no need for this kind of politeness between the two, he waved his hand and turned around and left Wenyuan Pavilion.

A few days later, the preliminary plan for the reform of the tax system of the Ministry of Household Affairs was introduced, the main content of which was to streamline and unify the taxation and convert all the previous tax deductions in kind into money.

To be honest, this reform did not cause much repercussions in the court, because officials at all levels with tax power were themselves full of antipathy to the cumbersome tax deductions in kind, and if all of them could be converted into money, it would greatly reduce their workload.

It's just that some sharp-eyed people have found that the tax amount on land property seems to have been reduced a lot, especially with regard to the tax deduction of forced labor and miscellaneous taxes, which has been reduced by more than half compared with previous years.

Shen Yichen wanted to do a ladder tax system for a long time, but he knew very well that as soon as this decree came out, it was equivalent to starting a war with the entire scholar class. Since his strength is not enough now, he can only retreat to the second best thing and try to reduce the burden on the people at the bottom.

The two items of conscription and miscellaneous taxes are basically unrelated to the gentry class, and only the lowest level of the common people will be burdened. Nowadays, although the imperial court still has plans to go west and the north, the annual income has increased a lot compared with previous years, and the reduction of this part can still ensure the operation of the country.

The ancients said that don't take the good as a small thing, this tax reduction and exemption seems to be not much, but for many poor farmers, it is not an exaggeration to call it a way of life.

The tax reform is quietly advancing, and the attention of the court's civil and military officials is more attracted by the vast expatriate assignment of Beijing officials.

Under the leadership of Yang Hongze, who is also a special envoy of the cabinet minister, at the beginning of the third year of the Ming Dynasty, he went to the Ming Dynasty, the two capitals and thirteen provinces and the land of Luchuan Desert in southern Mongolia, and comprehensively carried out the work of clearing the acres of fields.

The reform and change planned by Shen Yichen has finally taken the most substantial step.

However, at this time, the cabinet received a holy edict from Emperor Mingliang, to be precise, Shen Yichen received a "letter of discussion" from the emperor. The content is that the eunuch Cao Jixiang, the eunuch of the master of ceremonies, recommended Wang Wen, the imperial envoy, as the cabinet minister, and Zhu Jianqing wanted to ask for Mr. 's opinion.

You must know that the normal process of entering the cabinet in the Ming Dynasty is that under the premise that there is a vacant position in the cabinet, the court meeting will be held by the officials of the Ministry of Heaven, and the emperor will choose to appoint it after the cabinet is approved.

If this process is not passed, the direct appointment of the emperor is equivalent to issuing a central decree, and such ministers will be excluded and despised by civil and military officials, let alone the support and cooperation of the six ministries. In addition to the ministers and ministers recommending the court meeting, there is also a eunuch like Wang Yining who is introduced into the cabinet, and he will also be treated with colored glasses, and he will not get the status and respect that the cabinet ministers deserve.

At the age of Emperor Ming Liang, he should only know a little about the process of entering the cabinet, and he would issue such a holy edict, Shen Yichen guessed that he was persuaded by Cao Jixiang, hoping that with the private teacher-student relationship, Shen Yichen would make Wang Wen smoothly enter the cabinet, so as to avoid the controversy caused by the appointment of the central decree.

Just when Shen Yichen felt a little dilemma, Zhao Ranyuan, a member of the Zhongshu House, entered the duty room to pass the news, and Yang Shan, the right capital, came to visit.